Somerset Cricket Club will hold two events this weekend and next to honour Clyde Best, their most successful footballing export, and to establish an educational scholarship fund in his name.

The proceeds raised from the golf tournament at Port Royal Golf Club on Saturday and the Clyde Best Scholarship Banquet at The Fairmont Southampton on June 13 will help to launch the scholarship fund. Before the year is out, the club hope to achieve something else of great importance to the community, having a road in Somerset named after the footballing legend.

“It is time we start honouring people who have breath and can actually experience it, rather than wait until they are gone and don’t know what is done for them,” said Alfred Maybury, the president of Somerset, where Best played his football as a youngster in the 1960s before joining West Ham United as a teenager in 1968.

“The scholarship will be for young people who are advancing in academics and one of the things we recognise at Somerset that we really want to instil in our young people is that while sport can be a great opportunity for you, you must prepare for life’s journey. Sport has a very short lifespan but there is life after sport.”

Best made his first-team debut for West Ham against Arsenal at Upton Park on August 25, 1969 at the age of 18. His first goal came during League Cup competition, in a 4-2 win over Halifax Town, on September 3, 1969. In total, he played 218 games and scored 58 goals for West Ham over seven seasons between August 1969 and January 1976, when he left the club.

Best also played for Feyenoord in the Netherlands and in the United States for Tampa Bay Rowdies, Toronto Blizzard and Portland Timbers, of the North American Soccer League.

“He has done a lot for football,” Maybury said. “He’s from Somerset and made great strides, not only in establishing football as an opportunity for our young people, but when he broke into the English leagues, there were very few players of colour. Now if you look at any English team, you see several people of colour and he was a ringleader who can be used positively.

“I didn’t see him play on TV, but you couldn’t walk around Somerset in that time without hearing the older fellas talking about Clyde Best. I was a youngster, but I remember when they brought him back from England to play in an FA Cup game against North Village and he scored the goal from just outside the 18-yard box. I remember the goal like it was yesterday.

“Our young players need to know who is who among the elite of Bermuda’s players and recognise that Mr Best wasn’t just a good football player; he also played in Cup Match. He was an all-round sportsman and we really need to start to recognise those people who have made significant contributions and that is what Somerset is doing: honouring him and letting him know that we really appreciate the sacrifices he made. Now other young people are getting greater opportunities because of the road he cut out for them.”

Tickets for the banquet, which starts at 6.30, are $125 per person and are available at the club or by contacting Maybury at amaybury@gmail.com